I operated my HF-2V vertical for about 10 years with 6 radials. Then, I added 60 more for 66 total radials. I thatched the living bejesus out of my back lawn, stapled down the radials bolted to a DXE SS plate, and the lawn regrew, the radials never to be seen again.
The difference was astonishing. Tonight I worked 3B7M on 40m cw on that vertical, despite strong local noise. Admittedly, my KPA1500 was squeakin' from the freakin' But, on other occasions, I have worked a JA stopped on his local bridge running 5w. It's not a beam, or even a high dipole, but verticals do work with a proper counterpoise. ON4UN's book, Guide to Low-Band DXing, has an excellent chapter on verticals. RIP. 73 Eric WD6DBM On Mon, Mar 6, 2023, 3:00 PM Alan Bloom <[email protected]> wrote: > On 3/6/23 15:08, Jim Brown wrote: > > Most (but not all) verticals need radials to transmit a decent signal. > > A vertical that needs radials is a lousy TX antenna without them. > > Right. > > I use a 6BTV, which is a 6-band trap vertical about 24 ft tall. With a > barefoot K4 at 100W I get out quite well. Obviously I can't compete > with the "big guns" running kilowatt amplifiers and beams at 120 feet, > but I do work lots of DX. I can crack most pileups with enough patience. > > The trick is that the antenna has 40 radials, each one 32 ft long buried > an inch or two in the sand at my desert location. > > The old joke that a vertical is an antenna that radiates equally poorly > in all directions is only true if you have a poor radial system. > > Alan N1AL > > ______________________________________________________________ > Elecraft mailing list > Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft > Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm > Post: mailto:[email protected] > > This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net > Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html > Message delivered to [email protected] ______________________________________________________________ Elecraft mailing list Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm Post: mailto:[email protected] This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html Message delivered to [email protected]
